Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-11-14
PARENTAL BLUNDERS.
SOME MISTAKES MADE IN THE TRAINING
OF CHILDREN.
DR.. Talmsgs's Discourse Last Sunday-Ths LONG
Story t Parental Neglsct-The ImpOrtancsOf
Early Culturs-The FIST Seven. Years.
Prevalent Mistakes Of Parents.
Special Telegram TO the Registe.-.

bROOhLHN, November l3.-1he weekly
publication of DR.. Talmage's sermons is
beyond parallel. Beside the English
speaking nations, including Australia and
New Zealand, the sermons are regularly
translated into the languages OF Germany,
France, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Russia
and India. The gentlemen having in
charge the publication of these sermons in
form us that in this country, every week,
thirteen million six hundred thousand
copies OF the entire sermon are printed,
and about four million in other lands,
making over seventeen million per week.
A similar arrangement is now being made
for the publication of DIR. Talmage's Fri
day evening talks.
The subject of the sermon to-day was
Parental Blunders," " and the text was
Samuel iv. IS: "He fell from Off the seat
backward by the side of the gate, and his
neck brake, and he died; for he was an old
man, and heavy" DR.. Talmage said:
This is the end of a long story of pa
|
man, but he let his boys, Hopni and
Phinehas, do as they pleased, and through
over-indulgence they went to ruin. The
blind old judge, ninety-eight years Of age,
is seated at the gate waiting for the news
of an important battle in which his two
sons were at the front. An express is
coming with tidings from the battle. This
blind nonagenarian puts his hand behind
his ear, and listens, and cries: ''WhaI
meaneth the noise of this tumult?" An
excited messenger, all out of breath with
the speed, said TO him: "0ur army is
defeated. The sacred chest, called the
ark, is captured, and your sons are
dead on the field" No wonder the father
tainted and expired The domestic trag-
edy in which these two sons were the
tragedians had finished its fifth and st
act. He fell from off the seat backward
by the side of the gate, and his neck brake,
and he died; for he was an old man, and
heavy"
Eli had made an awful mistake in regard
| to his children. The Bible distinctly says:
His sons made themselves vile and he
restrained them not" Oh, the ten thou
sand mistakes in rearing children, mis-.
takes of parents, mistakes of teachers in
day school and Sabbath classes, mistakes
which we all make. Will it not be useful
to consider them?
This country is going to be conquered by
a great army, compared with which that OF
Baldwin the First, and Xerxes, and Alex
ander, and Grant, and Lee, a! put togeth-
er, were
IN NUMBERS INSIGNIFICANT.
They will capture all our pulpits, store
houses, factories, and halls of legislation,
all our shipping, all our wealth, and all our
honors. They will take possession of all
authority, from the United States Presi-
dency down to the humblest cOnstabulary
oil erything between the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans They are on the march
now, and they halt neither day nor night.
They will soon be here, and all the present
| active population of this country must sur
lender and give way. | refer to the great
army of children. Whether they shall
take possession Of everything for good or
for bad, depends upon the style of prepa-
ration through which they pass on their
way from cradle to throne. Cicero acknow-
ledges he kept in his desk collection of
prefaces for books, which prefaces he could
at any time attach to anything he wanted
ia publish Tor himself or others; and all
parents and teachers have all prepared the
preface of every young life under their
charge, and not only the preface, but the
appendix, whether the volume be poem or
farce. Families, and schools and legisla-
lures are in our day busily engaged in dis
cussing what is the best mode of educating
children. Before this question almost
every other dwindles into insigniticance,
while dependent upon its proper solution
is the welfare of governments and ages
eternal Macauley tells of the war which
Frederick the Second made against Queen
Maria Theresa. And one day she appeared
before the august Diet, wearing mourning
for her father, and held up in her arms be-
fore them her child, the Archduke. This
so wrought upon the officers and deputies
of the people that with half.drawn swords
they broke forth in the war cry: ''Let us
die for our Queen, Maria Theresa" So,
this morning, realizing that the boy of to-
day is TO be the
RULER OF THE FUTURE,
the popular sovereign, hold him before
the American people to arouse their en-
thusiasm in his behalf, and to evoke their
oath for his defense, his education and his
sublime destiny.
If parent, you will remember when
you were aroused to these great response
bilites, and when you found that you had
no. done all required after you had ad-
mired the tiny hands, and the glossy hair,
and the bright eyes that lay in the cradle.
You suddenly remembered that that land
would yet be raised to bless the world
with its benediction, or to smite il with
curse In Ariosto's great poem there is
character called Ruggiero, who has
shield OF insufferable splendor, but it is
kept veiled, save on certain occasions, and
when uncovered is started and over
whelmed its beholder, who before had no
suspicion of its brightness. My hope to-
day is to uncover the destiny of your
child OF student, about which you may
have no especial appreciation, and fash
upon you the splendors Of its immortal
nature. Behold the shield and the sword
Of its coming conflict!
propose in this discourse to set forth
what consider TO be some OF the errors
prevalent in the training of children.
First: l remark that many err in too
great severity or too great leniency of fam
lily government Between parental tyran-
ny and ruinous laxativeness OF discipline
there is a medium. Sometimes the father
errs on one side, and the mother on the
other side. Good family government is
all important. Anarchy and misrule in
the domestic circle is the forerunner Of an
archy and misrule in the State. What a
repulsive spectacle is home without Or
der or discipline, disobedieDce and impu-
dence, and anger and falsehood lifting their
horrid front in the place which should be
consecrated to all that is holy, and peace
ful, and beautiful. In the attempt to
avaid all this, and bring the children
under
PROPER LAWS AND REGULATIONS,
parents have sometimes carried themselves
with great rigor. John Howard, who was
merciful to the prisons and lazarettos, was
merciless in the treatment Of his children.
John Milton knew everything but how to
train his family. Severe and unreasona-
bic was he in his carriage toward them.
He made them read to him in four or five
languages, but would not allow them to
Iaar1 ouv Of fharn for he oaid that ana